CaF2 optical components
SINOPTIX supplies various optical components made of optical grade calcium fluoride. CaF2 is often used as a UV optical component due to its good transmission at lower wavelengths. Nonetheless it is transparent up to NIR spectrum and therefore can be used as a substrate in broad application fields.
CaF2 characteristics
Calcium Fluoride properties chart
| Material denomination | Calcium Fluoride |
| Chemical formula | CaF2 |
| Refractive index | nd=1.43384 |
| Abbe Number | Vd = 95.23 |
| Transmission range | 130nm to 9.5µm |
| Density | 3.18 g/cm3 |
| Hardness | MOHS 4 |
| Young’s modulus | 146 GPa <100>
101 GPa <110> 91 GPa <111> |
| Thermal expansion | 20.8*10-6 °K-1 |
| Thermal conductivity | 9.7 W/(m*°K) |
| Melting point | 1420 °K |
These values are for generic CaF2, there are different grades of CaF2 optimized for Excimer lasers (193nm or 248nm) with optimized specifications.
CaF2 optical components capabilities
Manufacturing capabilities
| Properties | Values |
|---|---|
| Available dimensions | Diameter up to D320mm |
| Dimensional tolerances | +/-0.01mm |
| Thickness | 1-50mm |
| Surface quality | S&D : 20/10 normal quality; 10/5 for high quality |
| Available orientations | <111>/<001>; <100> in limited dimensions |
| Flatness | 1/10 lambda at best |
| Parallelism | better than 10″ |
| Coatings | AR / BBAR |
CaF2 components references :
Available Calcium fluoride components
We can propose below kinds of optical components :
- CaF2 windows
- CaF2 lenses
- CaF2 prisms
- CaF2 wafers
Calcium fluoride has a naturally high LIDT which is a big advantage for UV and IR lasers applications. But in order not to downgrade this laser damage resistance quality of the optics is very important both on surface quality and material purity.
It is important to mention us the application of your CaF2 optics as different applications may needs different grade quality.